New MindOut programme launched for teens

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A newly revised version of the MindOut programme for young people aged between 15 and 18, has been launched

MindOut was developed to support the social and emotional wellbeing of young people in secondary schools and youth sector settings. Its aim is to give them time and space to identify things that impact on their mental health, and to explore how they deal with these issues.

It was developed by the Health Promotion Research Centre at NUI Galway and the HSE's Health Promotion and Improvement Department, and has been shown to improve young people's overall mental health and wellbeing.

The school-based programme involves 12 classroom sessions, while the youth sector programme has different modules which aim to respond to the needs of particular groups.

MindOut was originally developed in 2004, before being revised in 2017 based on feedback from young people, teachers and youth workers. The revised programme was piloted in DEIS schools and Youthreach centres before being finalised last year.

An extensive evaluation of the programme found that teenagers can greatly benefit from it.

"The study findings show that the MindOut programme has very positive benefits for adolescents, leading to improved social and emotional skills, such as coping and emotional regulation, and reduced levels of stress and depression, including for the most vulnerable young people.

"These findings support the delivery of MindOut in the senior cycle curriculum and the important impact it has on enhancing students' resilience, mental health and emotional wellbeing, which play a key role in supporting positive outcomes in school and life more generally," commented Prof Margaret Barry of NUI Galway, who conducted the evaluation.

A total of 18 training days will be provided to teachers and six training days will be provided to youth workers nationwide this autumn. Teachers can register for MindOut training on www.sphe.ie, while youthworkers can register for on www.nyci.ie.